people

Carl Pickens, Associate

Carl has 15 years experience designing and implementing successful public and private landscapes across New Zealand with an emphasis on sustainability in design, construction and management, and a special interest in productive plants. His background includes project management for Auckland Council, landscape design and construction in Europe and biodynamic farming in Canterbury.

Carl has won several awards including gold and silver distinction medals for his exhibition gardens at the Ellerslie International Flower Show, where he promoted the use of ecological design techniques and materials. His current projects include eco-subdivisions and ecovillage design, sustainability centres and urban farms, large acreage lifestyle blocks, and urban residential gardens.

Nick Robinson, Principal

Nick has twenty five years experience of landscape architecture professional practice in New Zealand and Britain. Before setting up his own practice he worked on significant landscape projects across the North of England as a Landscape Architect for Prof. Arnold Weddle and Rotherham Metropolitan Council, and as Design Principal for ECUS, the Environmental Consultancy of the University of Sheffield. This included award winning landscapes of industry, new roads, campuses, urban regeneration and parks. Nick has practiced for 15 years in New Zealand, gaining broad experience of landscape design in the varied natural and cultural landscapes of the South Pacific and winning awards for innovative cemetery design, urban landscape and town centre re-juvenation.

In addition to professional practice, Nick has taught landscape architecture at universities in the UK (Sheffield and Gloucestershire), USA (Cal Poly) and New Zealand (Lincoln and UNITEC) and has a range of publications to his credit including the Planting Design Handbook (now in its third edition, published 2016) along with journal and web articles (see the publications pages of this website). He recently completed a sabbatical period working and studying at the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield, UK, with a focus on current thinking on ecological approaches to urban design and innovations in planting design for biodiversity, and working with international experts on urban ecology, green roofs and green walls.